001There you are. Are you supposed to go to They're not started You've been sneaking around high school for a couple years now. Okay, good evening everyone. I'm going to call this meeting to order and we will start with a pledge of allegiance. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Okay. Good evening everyone and welcome to this evening's work session. We will start off with the audience of citizens and I believe I need to read the statement. So we'll start with that. Um as Mr. Patchel prepares himself. Um, the meeting is be this meeting is being videotaped for community cable channels and streamed live. Individuals attending this meeting and intending to speak
002to the board should be aware that they are being videotaped. In order to meet the requirement of Pennsylvania Sunshine Law, it is necessary to record the names of all citizens who speak to the board during the meeting. To asssure compliance with this requirement, it is essential that those planning to address the board state their name and municipality. Members of the audience are asked to limit their questions and comments to three minutes. As a reminder, the audience of citizens portion of the meeting is designed for residents and taxpayers of the district to provide comment and feedback on matters which are or may come before the board. It is not designed for debate or discussion with the board. When appropriate, individual school directors may choose to respond to public comments that have been made once the audience
003of citizen period has concluded or request that a member of the administration follow up with the speakers after the meeting. This is in reference to board policy 903. Good evening, Mr. Patchel. >> Uh, good evening again. I didn't I didn't realize [clears throat] this was a double match. Sorry, Mr. Starting for the second game, but I am here and I will torture you. >> Hold on, Mr. Patchel. Just a second. Sorry, >> we've got we've got a board doc issue that we're going to address and then we're going to give you the full time your full three minutes. So, just hold a minute. >> Very good. Thank you. Okay, >> I'm going to time you for purposes of this meeting. >> Okay, >> that's fine. >> All right. >> I never really need too much
004time. >> Okay. >> You know, I I I'm so irritating. They said, "Please leave now." Just a little earlier. But anyway, the thing that's really important is as with a limitation of the audience of citizens, the three minutes, it might be advisable where a meeting is scheduled for uh uh 6 to 8:30, you might limit those discussions so it wouldn't have to be tabled or passed over to to just spend about 25 minutes cuz I was going to sleep back there, you know, I'm talking nobody even understands what you're saying. So that's going to drive out most of the people that watch channel 28. So uh what we have to do is let's be mindful of the expenditures. Mindful of as I said the last game we need to think about act one. How's that
005going to work out? So nobody knows. You know it's like politics. You never know who is it this month. Oh, uh, it's Colombia and then we're going to Greenland and then why don't we let Dr. Bower just decide everything and everything will be very smooth, you know. [clears throat] So, we need to have discussion, but you got to keep the thing rolling along, you know. So, uh, the issues are really the main issues mental health. Mia Kim will say that yes, mental health and I am not able to find a single person able to cure the mental health and we don't want to have another Stanley Cup hitting somebody on the head because you know civil lawsuits it it is a bit messy down there and I don't think Morgan and Morgan are are handling
006that case. So, uh, uh, the things that trouble the the people here, well, you talk about these interest rates, if they go down, the silly people in Montgomery Township, they drove my house up to 700 grand. [laughter] I mean, I didn't plan that, but you know, it's like buying a Bitcoin. That thing actually did go up. [laughter] So, so, uh, people are just going, "No, I'm not moving. I'm not selling. Yeah, I'm going to refinance it when it gets back to 3%." you know, the tariffs, you didn't get to the tidal wave yet. You know, it's coming in. [laughter] So, uh, you know, there's big things on the on the horizon. And, uh, 58 57 stop spending money. Uh, why don't you cut costs before you raise taxes? 46 44. That was Reggie Jackson's number.
007Okay. 40. That's the number of hours in a work week. So, you know, sometimes they do this in filibusters. They talk about anything. The guy's been talking for 24 hours. [laughter] So, you know, we need a little oversight on the spending here. Everything you want to raise taxes for. 400 grand. Find me 400 grand with a with a scalpel so I can cut out the cancer. You know, that's what you need to do. 12 11 uh stop spending money. Uh spend it wisely. Uh make it sustainable around here. And a happy new year to all of you in your new positions of uh >> Thank you, Mr. Patchel. >> Leading the district. Thank you very much. >> We appreciate you staying awake and coming out to speak to us. [snorts] >> Good evening, Mr. Lineer.
008>> Good evening. Uh Jason Lair Lansdale I wanted [clears throat] to circle back to where we were talk what we were talking about before because wanted to clarify a couple things. I'm not saying that didn't understand why the the the rationale for the movie sale a lot. What I don't haven't seen is the actual other offers because you can say why it was accepted but really put it in black and white. I don't know why we're not we haven't uh let that information out. um why we accepted the second highest offer. Uh and going back to the these these uh expenditures for lawsuits, these are these are settlements. They're listed as legal settlements in over two months, right? So this was from November 20 uh 2025 and uh November 2024. >> There are $642 thou,000
009and uh $193,000 Is this every month we have this type of expenditure? What are we settling? There are account numbers associated with all these and there are individual vendor numbers which I mean I guess that's means uh who who is the person we are settling with or the lawsuit. Some of them are repeated, some of them aren't. But that's a lot of expenditures. And what is it that's causing these sorts of things? I want to know. I mean, really, this is a this is be a there's got to be some curiosity as to why we're spending so much on on legal settlements. Maybe I don't know. Maybe it's very straightforward. It has to do with uh uh exiting contracts or whatever. I don't know. But this is a lot of money and it really needs
010to be drilled down and figure out what what's causing this. Um and lastly, the the healthcare center. I understand there's a lot of benefit supposedly with the health care center. The co the difference to me as a taxpayer is we're paying for something that doesn't seem to show it. It's it's it's an expenditure on top of an expenditure. Sure, our premiums have gone up because healthc care across the country has gone up healthcare expenses. But the whole idea is that in payment that we make to the cooperative was supposed to go down or be flat and has not. So I'm not sure with the individual uh care for you know um general practice care that you go to see your doctor for is decreased. I'm not sure how that's tracked. Uh but it seems like
011the taxpayer is footing the bill for something that we're not actually seeing. there's no ROI and this was all completely sold as having a large ROI and it was going to reduce those premium costs. So you're going to have to do better than just saying well it's nice and and it keeps uh it's easier and it's convenient. It needs to be saving the taxpayer money. Thank you. >> Thank you Mr. Lineer. Okay. Any other uh public comment? Okay. If not, we will move on to the superintendent report. >> Thank you Mrs. Ramage and hold on board docs is now loading. I was looking back at some of the meetings that Mr. Laneir was referencing. Okay. Uh so the first item I have I just have three items this evening is to recommend approval of the
012personnel items as per the attached. >> Great. Do I have a motion and a second? >> Second. >> Motion by Mr. McBain, seconded by Mrs. Rnik. Um any comments or questions? >> All in favor say I. >> I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. >> Next, I recommend approval of the contracts for the district as listed uh in the public content. [snorts] >> Okay. Do I have a motion and a second to approve the contracts as listed? >> Second. >> Motion by uh Mr. Kaiser, seconded by Mr. Bell. Any comments or questions? >> Could Could I just understand what what this is? >> Mr. Mr. Summers, I don't know if you want to weigh in on uh contracts versus student agreements. In general, when you notice um a director of special education's name as a contract
013originator, um it is typically IEP related uh for a student services for a student with an IEP. But Mr. Subs. >> Yeah, sure. Um so under contracts oftent times uh at monthly meetings the contracts that will be listed there are with um specific approved private schools or other private uh entities and and largely those are because um there are students with disabilities who reside in the district who their uh individualized education program or IEP team has made a determination that they require services that go beyond what might be available in their local neighborhood school. So um often times students will begin in their neighborhood school but there may come a time where um just because of the nature of their disability or the supports that they need that there are certain schools that are are
014specially designed to provide those services. So the Nexus school for example um specializes in supporting students with autism. Um and so um you know oftentimes students uh if their IEP team recommends that they attend u an outofd district placement it's the district's responsibility to fund that placement as as their public education and so those contracts come before the board for approval. >> Thank you m >> um over the last few years doc Dr. Bow we brought a lot of these students back into our schools. Isn't that a true statement? Yeah, I I think it is fair to say that we have expanded our options for students and many students and their families in collaboration with the IEP team have made the decision to return to their home school as opposed to some of the settings
015that Mr. Summers was describing. >> Yes, I agree. >> Okay, we have a motion and a second on the floor. Um, all those in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. Student agreements. Next, I recommend approval of student agreements as per those listed and copies are on file in the office of special education. >> Do I have a motion and a second? >> So moved. >> Motion by Mrs. Rdnick, seconded by Mr. Rash. Any comments or questions? Okay, seeing none, all those in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. >> Thank you very much. That's it for the superintendence report. Under other business, um we started this practice, I'm going to say roughly a year ago, Dr. Kim, where uh when a active employee passes away, whether they're on
016medical leave or not, uh but if they are currently an employee, uh we do put that on uh the board minutes or agenda just to notify the public and to share with you. So, uh, very sad to share that one of our staff nurses, um, at Gwyn Square, Sandy Fee, passed away on December 19th, just before the holidays. Uh, we have been in touch with her family, Dr. Kim and Mr. Bashaw, the principal of the school, have been in touch and, uh, certainly an impact in that community and, uh, we're thinking of her family. >> Um, on behalf of the board, I would like to extend our deepest sympathies to both the school community at Gwenned Square. We know that she made a tremendous impact and the loss there I'm I'm sure is felt by
017um the school um and the school community um but also um for her family would also like to share our condolences um and true value and appreciation for her dedicated service to the district. Okay, committee assignments. Um with the appointment of Mr. Bell and Mr. Tio we are presenting just a revised update of the committee assignments. Um Mr. Tio has been added to the ECI committee sorry Dr. Tio has been added to the ECI committee finance which is committee of the whole and policy. No yes policy and then Mr. Bell is being added to the facilities and operation finance and safe schools. Thank you. Um so and that is available for review. Okay. And I believe that that is do we have any other items for other business? >> I do want to share just
018ingest here that as a cabinet team we were reviewing these committee assignments and Mrs. RDNick. Someone said that someone forgot to remove Kuni from her old assignments because I see your name under North Monco obviously chair of finance personnel policy and safe schools. So, and your vice president of the board. So, thank you. [laughter] So, just just a reminder. [clears throat] Okay. >> Yeah, we didn't tell her yet. Someone's pulling a prank. So, um no, I'm excited. The team as a whole, the administration is excited to work with all of you. So, I think these are great pairings um and look forward to the work, the important work that's to be done. So, thank you >> and really appreciate everyone's willingness to step up. So, just for the community's knowledge, too, we did put it
019out to everyone to which committees they wanted um to join. Mrs. Rnick um did want to join other committees and I actually had to say no, but I do want to thank her for being such a dedicated member of the board. [laughter] >> No. So anyway um okay so with that said do I have a motion to adjourn the meeting? >> Okay meeting adjourned. Thank you very much.